1. Technical Field
The present disclosure relates to electrically conductive elements, and particularly, to an electrically conductive element based on carbon nanotubes.
2. Discussion of Related Art
Electrically conductive elements, especially transparent conductive elements, are important elements in various electronic devices, such as touch panels, liquid crystal display devices, or field emission display devices.
Conventional conductive elements usually include a substrate and a transparent metal oxide film formed on the substrate. The transparent metal oxide film can be an indium-tin oxide film or a zinc oxide. However, after being continuously folded, the resistance of the metal oxide films at the folded location increases, and the mechanical and chemical properties are not ideal. The metal oxide films are mainly made by vacuum evaporation methods and magnetron sputtering methods. The drawbacks of these methods include complicated equipment, high cost and being unsuitable for mass production. Furthermore, these methods need a process of high-temperature annealing, which will damage the substrate on which the transparent conductive film is formed, whereby the substrate with a low melting point cannot be used for forming the film. Thus, the conventional methods have their limitations. In addition, the metal oxide films are usually electrically isotropic conductive film, which makes the conductive elements electrically isotropic conductive.
What is needed, therefore, is to provide an electrically conductive element with electrically anisotropic conductivity, to overcome the above shortages.